Church firms to pay land rates under Bill
A service at the All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi on January 25, 2015. FILE PHOTO |
What you need to know:
- Charity organisations also in the loop.
- Proposed law says as long as the non-profit groups are engaged in activities that make money, they have to pay levies.
Religious and charitable organisations in Nairobi County will, from now on, pay rates on land currently housing activities that are profit-driven.
The county is drafting a new law that will impose the charges on private schools, hospitals and residential commercial buildings developed by religious and charity organisations.
COLONIAL TIMES
“The law was enacted during colonial times when only the government provided these services; it has to be revisited to allow for new valuations. For instance, we cannot charge religious institutions even if they set up commercial blocks,” Nairobi County Deputy Chief Valuer, Ms Gineth Magiri, told the Nation, citing the new office block built by the All Saints Cathedral Church in Nairobi.
The Nairobi City County Valuation and Rating Bill seeks to draw a clear line from commercially profitable businesses done by civil organisations that earn revenue. The Bill excludes rateable land used for public religious worship; cemeteries, crematoria and burial grounds, public hospitals or other public institutions treating the sick.
Public institutions of basic education and training including residence of students, charitable institutions, museums and libraries; public outdoor and indoor sports; national parks and national reserves are also exempt as long as they are not used to generate profits.
“To avoid doubt, if the exclusive or dominant use of a rateable property is for a commercial purpose, the property is not an exempt rateable property,” reads a section of the Bill.
Property owners in Nairobi will also start paying more in land rates once the Bill comes into effect as this will result to new valuations on which to base them. The current rates are based on valuations done 33 years ago after a draft valuation law was thrown out by the High Court in 2001.
